President Donald Trump has pledged to take a “have a look at” whether or not the federal government ought to attain a settlement with the household of Ashli Babbit, the January 6 insurrectionist who was shot useless by a police officer as she tried to enter the U.S. Capitol.
The president has repeatedly praised his supporters who tried to overturn his 2020 election loss to former President Joe Biden, together with Babbitt, who was fatally shot whereas climbing via a damaged door barricaded by officers as they tried to evacuate dozens of Congress members.
Final 12 months, Babbitt’s household filed a $30 million wrongful demise swimsuit in opposition to the U.S. authorities.
Trump, who in January granted clemency to 1,500 charged with crimes related to the January 6, 2021 assault, instructed Newsmax’s Greg Kelly on Tuesday that he’ll look at whether or not the Division of Justice ought to settle the case.
Kelly instructed Trump that the federal government is “nonetheless type of preventing that case” and that the DOJ “is opposing that lawsuit.”
“You’re telling me that for the primary time. I haven’t heard that,” Trump responded.
“I’m a giant fan of Ashli Babbitt okay, and Ashli Babbitt was a very good one who was a giant MAGA fan, Trump fan, and she or he was innocently standing there – they even say attempting to kind of maintain again the group.”
“And a person did one thing unthinkable to her when he shot her, and I believe it’s a shame. I’m going to look into that, I didn’t know that,” he added.
Kelly then probed about Michael Byrd, the U.S. Capitol Police lieutenant who shot Babbitt, who remains to be on responsibility.
“I believe it’s a shame,” he mentioned. “I’m going to take a look at that too. His popularity was — I received’t even say. Let’s discover out about his popularity, okay? We’re going to seek out out.”
The president additionally hinted on the concept of a “compensation fund” for Jan. 6 defendants who had been beforehand imprisoned that he claimed had been handled “very unfairly” by the Biden administration.
“Properly, there’s quite a lot of discuss that. Lots of people which are in authorities now discuss it, as a result of lots of people in authorities actually like that group of individuals,” he mentioned.
“They had been patriots, so far as I used to be involved,” he continued. “A bunch of individuals went down there, peacefully and patriotically, keep in mind that.”
On Friday, the president introduced up Babbitt’s deadly capturing when he in contrast the vandalization of Tesla dealerships to the storming of the Capitol, stating the extent of assaults had been higher in opposition to Elon Musk’s firm.
“You didn’t have something like that on Jan. 6, which is kind of wonderful as a result of on Jan. 6, the Democrats had been speaking,” Trump mentioned. “No person was killed aside from a really stunning younger lady, Ashli, Ashli Babbitt. No person was killed.”